Philae comet lander reawakens

European Space Agency (Esa) has announced that its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and re-established contact with Earth.

Philae had been dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, the Rosetta probe, last November. It functioned for 60 hours before going to sleep after its solar-powered battery was exhausted.

Since then, the comet has moved nearer to the sun and Philae now has enough power to work again.

The Rosetta probe took 10 years to reach the comet, and the lander - about the size of a washing-machine - bounced at least a kilometre when it touched down.

Its exact location on the comet remains unclear, however, ESA said on Thursday that it might have located the missing lander from images and other data sent by the mothership.